Water80
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As Economy Falters, Everglades May Lose Out
In the past months, the headlines have been dominated by news of yet another bad day for the stock market. But, there is another casualty of the recession that probably isn’t getting as much press. While stocks continue to plummet, the Everglades of South Florida may also be falling on hard times as a result…
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Water, Water everywhere, nor any drop for China?
Last summer I found myself writing a Water Center Report on China’s massive South-to-North Water transfer project in lieu of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. While the world had its eyes fixed on the struggle between freedom-seeking Tibetans and the Chinese authority, the rumbling of a mammoth water crisis was underway. The Northern provinces (where Beijing…
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Drought in China
Currently, in Northern China, they are experiencing the worst drought they have had in at least 50 years, according to the New York Times. This is extremely problematic for the people because 3/5 of the country’s wheat is grown in this area.
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Water Footprinting
Last week, the Wall Street Journal published an article about how companies are starting to calculate their “water footprint” as well as their carbon footprint to institute more water friendly policies. Commercial companies have discovered that it takes “20 gallons of water to make a pint of beer, as much as 132 gallons of water to make a…
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Low-cost water management in Ethiopia
Water capture and storage for irrigation has been an ongoing theme of research in Columbia’s earth and environmental engineering department, but Professor Upmanu Lall has recently taken things a step further. With funding from the Pulitzer family, Lall challenged a group of students in his senior engineering course to design a low-cost system of water…
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Climate change and the hydrological cycle
The prospects of significant and damaging changes in the hydrological cycle due to the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations were raised in earlier IPCC reports and restated more strongly in the most recent, 2007 Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). Now, the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) issued its final Synthesis and Assessment Report on…
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Abrupt Climate Change, How Likely?
Yesterday the USGS released “Abrupt Climate Change, Final Report, Synthesis and Assessment Product 3.4” of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research. You can download the four page brochure or the full report here. Columbia scientists Edward R. Cook (the lead author) and Richard Seager, both from Lamont-Doherty Earth…